Forum Review by msbaylor (Visit the thread for video, more pics, and a bonus Forum Review by cjvitek!) For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum!
Camera bag is a simple and creative application.
It allows you to apply several different filters to a picture you have already taken our one that you can take within the application itself.
Besides the filters themselves, you have the option to choose which resolution you wish to use. The higher the resolution the longer the app will take in saving your new photo, but the better the quality the picture will be. Personally I want the highest quality possible and it didn’t seem to take an unnecessary amount of time to save (the save time is shown in there video below.)
The app has 8 filters total that you can apply to a photo:
- Helga: this desaturates and adds a vignett border as well as crops the photo.
- Lolo: crops the photo to a square, adds a white border and increases situation and contrast.
- Cinema: desaturates photo and adds a blue tone to the photo.
- Ansel: Adds white border and converts picture to Black & White (grayscale).
- 1962: converts to black & white (grayscale) and increases contrast.
- 1974s: adds sepia tone to photo, adds white border and crops photo.
- Fisheye: Creates a bubble type of effect with your photo. (not really fisheye).
- Infrared: Converts the photo to black & white (grayscale) then Inverts the colors.
To get started, you just have to tap the camera icon to take a photo of tap the “group” icon – right-most icon of the 3-group of icons, to select a previously taken photo. The photo will load with the first filter applied (Helga). You can then select from the list at the top by tapping the name of the filter to drop down the list and selecting another filter. You can also “flip” through the filters, as you would do in your photo album. Once you find the filter you like, you just click the save button (middle of the 3 keys) and it automatically saves to you camera roll.
This application only applies coloration filter, in other words there is not mosaic or of-the-like-type filter, which for me, I enjoy. I tend not to like the mosaic and “fun” filters, but more of the black & white, color variation filters. The app developer says they will include more filters in the following updates. I’d like to see a variable filter of some type (contrast for example), in which you can control the variables (sliders) of the filter. I’d also like to see the ability to apply multiple filters before saving.
At first I was a bit hesitant on purchasing this application as I didn’t want to pay $2.99 for applying filters on my iphone (I thought “that’s something I can do on my computer”) but it is a nice application to have and it creates nice photos overall. The application is currently on sale for $3. Its orginal price is $5. Personally I am not sure I don’t recommend paying $5 for this app until they add more filters, maybe $4, and I defiantly recommend buying it for $3.
Recommendations & Tips: although you have the ability to take the photo in the application, I'd recommend taking the photo with the standard camera application then apply the filter in the app. You can also add multiple filters by applying a filter, then saving it, then reopening your newly created photo and apply another filter. You may encounter small artifacts in the photo due to multiple conversions/savings in doing this though.
Pros:
- Simple & easy to use
- Application of filters to taken photos within the app or previous ones.
- Good quality filters
Cons:
- Only 8 filters
- Can’t apply multiple filters before saving.
- Filters are arbitrary (you can’t change the variables in the filter)
Forum Review Rating
[Camera Bag is available from the iTunes App Store for $2.99]
